Transaction Search Form: please type in any of the fields below.
Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:36 pm
Time: 8:36 pm
Results for mafia
19 results foundAuthor: Mastrobuoni, Giovanni Title: Understanding Organized Crime Networks: Evidence Based on Federal Bureau of Narcotics Secret Files on American Mafia Summary: Using unique data on criminal profiles of 800 US Mafia members active in the 50s and 60s and on their connections within the Cosa Nostra network we analyze how the geometry of criminal ties between mobsters depends on family ties, community roots and ties, legal and illegal activities. We contrast our evidence with historical and sociological views about the functioning of the Mafia. Much of our findings are remarkably in line with these views, with interesting qualifications. We interpret some of our results in light of a model of optimal vertical and horizontal connections where more connections mean more profits but also a higher risk of defection. We find that variables that lower the risk of defection, among others, kinship, violence, and mafia culture increase the number of connections. Moreover, there is evidence of strategic endogamy: female children are as valuable as male ones, and being married to a “connected” wife is a strong predictor of leadership within the Mafia ranks. A very parsimonious regression model explains one third of the variability in the criminal ranking of the “men of honor,” suggesting that these variables could be used to detect criminal leaders. An additional prediction of our simple model is a right-skewed distribution of the number of connections, which is remarkably in line with the evidence of an extremely hierarchical organization. Details: Unpublished Working Paper, 2010. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 15, 2011 at: http://www.princeton.edu/chw/lectures-conferences/Mastrobuoni2-Understanding-Organized-Crime-September-2010.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.princeton.edu/chw/lectures-conferences/Mastrobuoni2-Understanding-Organized-Crime-September-2010.pdf Shelf Number: 122389 Keywords: Criminal NetworksMafiaOrganized Crime (U.S.) |
Author: Pinotti, Paolo Title: The Economic Costs of Organized Crime: Evidence from Southern Italy Summary: I examine the post-war economic development of two regions in southern Italy exposed to mafia activity after the 1970s and apply synthetic control methods to estimate their counterfactual economic performance in the absence of organized crime. The synthetic control is a weighted average of other regions less affected by mafia activity that mimics the economic structure and outcomes of the regions of interest several years before the advent of organized crime. The comparison of actual and counterfactual development shows that the presence of mafia lowers GDP per capita by 16%, at the same time as murders increase sharply relative to the synthetic control. Evidence from electricity consumption and growth accounting suggest that lower GDP reflects a net loss of economic activity, due to the substitution of private capital with less productive public investment, rather than a mere reallocation from the official to the unofficial sector. Details: Milan, Italy: Universita Bocconi, 2012. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 21, 2012 at: https://irvapp.fbk.eu/sites/irvapp.fbk.eu/files/irvapp_seminar_2013_01_pinotti_paper.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Italy URL: http://www.frdb.org/upload/file/MILLS/Paper_Pinotti_2012.pdf Shelf Number: 124623 Keywords: Economics of CrimeMafiaOrganized Crime (Italy) |
Author: Cara, Arben Title: Investigating and Combating Organized Crime in EU Summary: The organized crime (OC) situation within the EU is developing rapidly. It is a growing problem within the EU and poses a threat to the EU objective to create a high level of safety within an area of freedom, security and justice. On the one hand, the opening of the borders between EU – 27 member states have made the indigenous and non-indigenous OC groups within the EU aware of the possibilities of expanding their criminal activities. Furthermore, to achieve criminal successes, the OC groups exploit the absence of or delay in the political initiatives or the unforeseen, negatives consequences of these as well as judicial changes among different EU member states. On the other hand, the growth of the European Union however does not just provide the organized crime with new opportunities in a common geographical and political space; it also provides the EU with an opportunity to streamline its political initiatives and activities, to become more efficient by overcoming national differences in the area of law enforcement. The EU has taken advantage of this new opportunity and from the recent years up to now has adopted a global strategy in the struggle against the organized crime both within the EU and in the international level. This strategy for the purpose of my research is divided into important parts: The investigation of organized crime and the combating of organized crime, within EU and beyond. The primary aim of this work is just to analyze and to bring insights for the EU a logic line and method to investigate and combat the organized crime from EU. We should keep in mind that the EU is not “a state” and the difficulties to achieve this goal are enormous. And, a good example to frame laws and to introduce efficient investigative methods, in different member states and in its own EU legislation, is Italy. As regards the methodology it is a mixing between analyze and descriptive one. The work will focus more on e European perspective of the fight against the organized crime than on individual national actions against it. The two important moments of this strategy against organized crime are reflected as I mentioned above on the investigation of organized crime, and combating of organized crime. Details: Trieste, Italy: Università degli studi di Trieste, 2011. 205p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed August 12, 2013 at: http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/handle/10077/7446 Year: 2011 Country: Europe URL: http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/handle/10077/7446 Shelf Number: 129620 Keywords: MafiaOrganized Crime (Italy) |
Author: Meier, Stephan Title: Trust and In-Group Favoritism in a Culture of Crime Summary: We use experiments in high schools in two neighborhoods in the metropolitan area of Palermo, Italy to experimentally demonstrate that the historical informal institution of organized crime can undermine current institutions, even in religiously and ethnically homogeneous populations. Using trust and prisoner's dilemma games, we found that students in a neighborhood with high Mafia involvement exhibit lower generalized trust and trustworthiness, but higher in-group favoritism, with punishment norms failing to resolve these deficits. Our study suggests that a culture of organized crime can affect adolescent norms and attitudes that might support a vicious cycle of in-group favoritism and crime that in turn hinders economic development. Details: Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2014. 67p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper No. 8169: Accessed September 2, 2014 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp8169.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Italy URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp8169.pdf Shelf Number: 133164 Keywords: MafiaOrganized Crime (Italy) |
Author: D'Alisa, Giacomo Title: Victims in the "Land of Fires": A case study on the consequences of buried and burnt waste in Campania, Italy Summary: The "Land of Fires" indicates an area in Campania, in the south of Italy were, systematically, since the end of the '80s, toxic wastes have been dumped by organized crime (i.e., camorra, the name for the Neapolitan mafia). Organised crime plays, as a matter of fact, a significant role in the waste management industry; however, organized criminals are not the only players. Although in the public opinion the mafia clans are the most important subjects involved in the illegal waste trafficking, a significant role is also played in this field by many businessmen and firms. Corruption is a crucial element that connects all these actors in the waste sector, characterized by the grant of public licenses and authorizations. Moreover, this sector needs large economic investments and has to face a huge bureaucratic machine, which makes the ground even more fertile for corruption. All these conditions hamper the competition and facilitate the creation and the development of oligopolistic forces, where the strength of mafia intimidation turns out to be particularly effective. The weak (or the absolute lack of) enforcement power at both national and regional levels has been used to explain this widespread illegal situation, but responsibilities actually lie at various governance levels, spanning from inefficient bureaucracy to political patronage and criminal malfeasance. Moreover, the lack of adequate (and effectively enforced) waste management policies has created institutional and regulatory uncertainty which fosters the illegal market of waste. On these premises, with the present case study report we aim to investigate how and why some associations and organizations become a reference point for the victims of those waste-related environmental crimes. The victims of the present analysis are not such ex-lege, but are those people who maintain the status of being victims of illegal waste disposal, and that were identified through several semi-structured interviews. An affiliation networks analysis was developed to study how the victims interacted over time with different associations; the findings obtained allows us to say that victims are strengthening their relationships with local associations in the network and are starting to play an important role to reinforce their socio-political and judicial actions and to combat the illegal practices that can considerably affect their lives. Details: Rome: University of Rome, 2015. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Case study compiled as part of the EFFACE project. Accessed August 21, 2015 at: http://efface.eu/sites/default/files/EFFACE%20Victims%20in%20the%20Land%20of%20Fires_0.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Italy URL: http://efface.eu/sites/default/files/EFFACE%20Victims%20in%20the%20Land%20of%20Fires_0.pdf Shelf Number: 136525 Keywords: Illegal WasteMafiaOffenses Against the EnvironmentOrganized CrimePollution |
Author: Nese, Annamaria Title: Cooperation, Punishment and Organized Crime: A Lab-in-the Field Experiment in Southern Italy Summary: This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation which allows a deeper insight into the nature of social preferences amongst organized criminals and how these differ from "ordinary" criminals on the one hand and from the non-criminal population in the same geographical area on the other. We provide experimental evidence on cooperation and response to sanctions by running Prisoner's Dilemma and Third Party Punishment games on three different pools of subjects; students, 'Ordinary Criminals' and Camorristi (Neapolitan 'Mafiosi'). The latter two groups being recruited from within prisons. We are thus able to separately identify 'Prison' and 'Camorra' effects. Camorra prisoners show a high degree of cooperativeness and a strong tendency to punish, as well as a clear rejection of the imposition of external rules even at significant cost to themselves. In contrast, ordinary criminals behave in a much more opportunistic fashion, displaying lower levels of cooperation and, in the game with Third Party punishment, punishing less as well as tending to punish cooperation (almost as much) as defection. Our econometric analyses further enriches the analysis demonstrating inter alia that individuals' locus of control and reciprocity are associated with quite different and opposing behaviours amongst different participant types; a strong sense of self-determination and reciprocity both imply a higher propensity to cooperate and to punish for both students and Camorra inmates, but quite the opposite for ordinary criminals, further reinforcing the contrast between the behaviour of ordinary criminals and the strong internal mores of Camorra clans. Details: Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2016. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper No. 9901: Accessed April 27, 2016 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp9901.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Italy URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp9901.pdf Shelf Number: 138823 Keywords: Economics of CrimeInmatesMafiaOrganized CrimePrisonersPunishment |
Author: Daniele, Gianmarco Title: Strike One to Educate One Hundred: Organized Crime, Political Selection and Politicians' Ability Summary: A central question in terms of political (self-)selection relates to the incentives leading high ability individuals to enter - or abstain from entering - into politics. In this article, we use data from Italian municipalities over the period 1985-2012 to empirically assess how changes in individuals' expected payoffs affect political (self-)selection. Identification derives from murders of local politicians by the mafia, and indicates that such a negative shock to politicians' expected payoffs induces a strong decrease in first-time elected politicians' human capital. The effect is not limited to the municipality where a political murder takes place, but also extends to nearby municipalities. Details: Barcelona: Institut d'Economia de Barcelona Facultat d'Economia i Empresa Universitat de Barcelona, 2015. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: IEB Working Paper N. 2015/37 : Accessed July 25, 2016 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2706594 Year: 2015 Country: Spain URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2706594 Shelf Number: 139823 Keywords: HomicidesMafiaOrganized CrimesPolitical AssassinationsPolitics |
Author: Rogers, Douglas B. Title: Organizing Crime: Towards a Theory of the Criminal Firm Summary: This dissertation investigates the industrial organization of criminal enterprise. We argue that differences in contestability across criminal industries crucially shape how producers in these industries organize. In more contestable criminal industries, producers use organizational hierarchy to enforce collusion and preserve their returns. However, hierarchy creates scope for boss self-dealing and so is costly. In less contestable criminal industries, where producers' benefit from colluding is smaller, this cost exceeds organizational hierarchy's benefit. Here producers organize "flatly" instead. To examine this hypothesis we explore history's most infamous criminal organizations: the Sicilian Mafia and Caribbean pirates. It also investigates the problem of external costs within a violent criminal industry. These costs arise when the activities of one criminal enterprise result in increased pressure by the state on other criminal enterprises. Since the costs of violent crime are borne in part by other criminal enterprises, each criminal enterprise engages in a suboptimally high degree of criminal activity from the perspective of the industry as a whole, driving profitability towards zero. In order to internalize the costs of violence, and thus sustain criminal activity, criminals establish collusive inter-firm institutions designed to regulate the overall amount of criminal activity. These institutions, however, once established, increase profitability in the industry and thus elicit competition amongst the cartel members, increasing the amount of criminal activity. Thus, criminal industries facing problems of external costs exhibit a cycle of regulated and unregulated violent activity. To test this hypothesis, I examine inter-firm institutions, known as commissions, in La Cosa Nostra1. Finally, a laboratory experiment was conducted to examine the performance of a market for protection in the absence of external enforcement. The focus of the experiment is whether subjects given the power to protect or predate, designated as "elites," form a cartel and charge a monopoly price to a set of subjects we label "peasants", or whether these elites compete as separate entities and charge peasants a competitive price. The price of protective services is measured by the amount of tribute transferred by peasants to a particular elite. Since we endow elites with superior ability in the use of force, they may also utilize involuntary transfers, La Cosa Nostra is commonly referred to as the Sicilian Mafia. which incur deadweight losses, to transfer resources. Thus, the subjects are motivated to devise a voluntary means of transfer through tribute within our environment. A baseline treatment was run where there was only a single provider of protection to establish a benchmark comparison. In building the design design, several different literatures were drawn upon, which discuss the viability of a private market for protection. This debate is particularly salient to discussions of protection services in developing countries. Details: Fairfax, VA: George Mason University, 2011. 103p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed August 3, 2016 at: http://mars.gmu.edu/bitstream/handle/1920/6380/Rogers_dissertation_2011.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2011 Country: International URL: http://mars.gmu.edu/bitstream/handle/1920/6380/Rogers_dissertation_2011.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Shelf Number: 139958 Keywords: Criminal NetworksMafiaOrganized Crime |
Author: Cockayne, James Title: Hidden Power: The Strategic Logic of Organized Crime: Sicily, New York and the Caribbean, 1859- 1968, and Mexico and the Sahel. Summary: Criminologists have long recognized that some groups govern criminal markets. Strategists and political scientists, however, downplay the role organized crime plays in domestic and international politics - though the United Nations Security Council, World Bank and White House have warned that role may be growing. The assumption has been that states and insurgents exist in a political 'upperworld' while organized crime exists in a separate, profit-driven 'underworld'. We consequently lack a framework for understanding the strategic logic of organized crime: how it uses force, and other means, to compete, cooperate and collaborate with states and other political organizations for governmental power. This dissertation develops such a framework, drawing on strategic theory, criminology, and economic and management theory. It applies the framework to the emergence, development and movement of mafias in Sicily, New York, and the Caribbean between 1859 and 1968. Using unpublished judicial, intelligence and diplomatic material, mafia memoires, and published secondary sources, the dissertation reveals mafias becoming autonomous strategic actors in both domestic and international politics. They deliberately influenced elections, organized domestic insurgency and transnational armed attacks, attempted regime change, and formed governmental joint ventures with ruling groups. Mafias played important and unappreciated military and political roles during the Second World War, the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Based on this historical analysis, the dissertation identifies six ways criminal groups position themselves in the 'market for government'. These positioning strategies help explain the emergence and behaviours of mafias, warlords and gang rulers; political-criminal alliances; acts of terrorism by criminal groups; and criminal sponsorship of new political structures ('blue ocean' strategy). The final section applies these concepts to two contemporary cases - Mexico and the Sahel - and considers the overall implications for strategic theory, efforts to combat organized crime and the management of criminal spoilers in peace processes. Details: London: King's College London, 2015. 376p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed October 6, 2016 at: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/44634722/2015_Cockayne_James_1018212_ethesis.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/44634722/2015_Cockayne_James_1018212_ethesis.pdf Shelf Number: 140599 Keywords: Criminal NetworksGangsMafiaOrganized CrimeWarlords |
Author: Campaniello, Nadia Title: Returns to Education and Experience in Criminal Organizations: Evidence from the Italian-American Mafia Summary: Is there any return to education in criminal activities? This is the first paper that investigates whether education has not only a positive impact on legitimate, but also on illegitimate activities. We use as a case study one of the longest running criminal corporations in history: the Italian-American mafia. Its most successful members have been capable businessmen, orchestrating crimes that require abilities that might be learned at school: extracting the optimal rent when setting up a racket, weighting interests against default risk when starting a loan sharking business or organising supply chains, logistics and distribution when setting up a drug dealing system. We address this question by comparing mobsters with their closest (non-mobster) neighbors using United States Census data in 1940. We document that mobsters have one year less education than their neighbors on average. None of the specifications presented identified any significant difference in the returns to education between these two groups. Private returns to education exist also in the illegal activities characterised by a certain degree of complexity as in the case of organized crime in mid-twentieth century United States. Details: Essex, UK: University of Essex, Department of Economics, 2015. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper No. 763: Accessed October 17, 2016 at: http://repository.essex.ac.uk/13795/1/dp763.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://repository.essex.ac.uk/13795/1/dp763.pdf Shelf Number: 145075 Keywords: Economics and CrimeEducation and CrimeMafiaOrganized Crime |
Author: Mann, Monique Title: A Story of Organized Crime: Constructing Criminality and Building Institutions Summary: his is a narrative about the way in which a category of crime-to-be-combated is constructed through the discipline of criminology and the agents of discipline in criminal justice. The aim was to examine organized crime through the eyes of those whose job it is to fight it (and define it), and in doing so investigate the ways social problems surface as sites for state intervention. A genealogy of organized crime within criminological thought was completed, demonstrating that there are a range of different ways organized crime has been constructed within the social scientific discipline, and each of these were influenced by the social context, political winds and intellectual climate of the time. Following this first finding, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with individuals who had worked at the apex of the policing of organized crime in Australia, in order to trace their understandings of organized crime across recent history. It was found that organized crime can be understood as an object of the discourse of the politics of law and order, the discourse of international securitization, new public management in policing business, and involves the forging of outlaw identities. Therefore, there are multiple meanings of organized crime that have arisen from an interconnected set of social, political, moral and bureaucratic discourses. The institutional response to organized crime, including law and policing, was subsequently examined. An extensive legislative framework has been enacted at multiple jurisdictional levels, and the problem of organized crime was found to be deserving of unique institutional powers and configurations to deal with it. The social problem of organized crime, as constituted by the discourses mapped out in this research, has led to a new generation of increasingly preemptive and punitive laws, and the creation of new state agencies with amplified powers. That is, the response to organized crime, with a focus on criminalization and enforcement, has been driven and shaped by the four discourses and the way in which the phenomenon is constructed within them. An appreciation of the nexus between the emergence of the social problem, and the formation of institutions in response to it, is important in developing a more complete understanding of the various dimensions of organized crime. Details: Griffith University, School of Humanities, 2014. 238p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed December 7, 2016 at: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/91930/1/PhD_MANUSCRIPT_REVISED_MANN.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Australia URL: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/91930/1/PhD_MANUSCRIPT_REVISED_MANN.pdf Shelf Number: 147924 Keywords: MafiaOrganized Crime |
Author: Agreste, Santa Title: Network Structure and Resilience of Mafia Syndicates Summary: In this paper we present the results of the study of Sicilian Mafia organization by using Social Network Analysis. The study investigates the network structure of a Mafia organization, describing its evolution and highlighting its plasticity to interventions targeting membership and its resilience to disruption caused by police operations. We analyze two different datasets about Mafia gangs built by examining different digital trails and judicial documents spanning a period of ten years: the former dataset includes the phone contacts among suspected individuals, the latter is constituted by the relationships among individuals actively involved in various criminal offenses. Our report illustrates the limits of traditional investigation methods like tapping: criminals high up in the organization hierarchy do not occupy the most central positions in the criminal network, and oftentimes do not appear in the reconstructed criminal network at all. However, we also suggest possible strategies of intervention, as we show that although criminal networks (i.e., the network encoding mobsters and crime relationships) are extremely resilient to different kind of attacks, contact networks (i.e., the network reporting suspects and reciprocated phone calls) are much more vulnerable and their analysis can yield extremely valuable insights. Details: Unpublished paper, 2015. 22p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 23, 2016 at: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.01608v1.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.01608v1.pdf Shelf Number: 147811 Keywords: Criminal NetworksMafiaOrganized CrimeSocial Network AnalysisSocial Networks |
Author: Rostami, Amir Title: Criminal Organizing: Studies in the sociology of organized crime Summary: What organized crime is and how it can be prevented are two of the key questions in both organized crime research and criminal policy. However, despite many attempts, organized crime research, the criminal justice system and criminal policy have failed to provide a shared and recognized conceptual definition of organized crime, which has opened the door to political interpretations. Organized crime is presented as an objective reality—mostly based on anecdotal empirical evidence and generic descriptions—and has been understood, as being intrinsically different from social organization, and this has been a justification for treating organized crime conceptually separately.In this dissertation, the concept of organized crime is deconstructed and analyzed. Based on five studies and an introductory chapter, I argue that organized crime is an overarching concept based on an abstraction of different underlying concepts, such as gang, mafia, and network, which are in turn semi-overarching and overlapping abstractions of different crime phenomena, such as syndicates, street-gangs, and drug networks. This combination of a generic concept based on underlying concepts, which are themselves subject to similar conceptual difficulties, has given rise to a conceptual confusion surrounding the term and the concept of organized crime. The consequences of this conceptual confusion are not only an issue of semantics, but have implications for our understanding of the nature of criminal collaboration as well as both legal and policy consequences. By combining different observers, methods and empirical materials relating to dimensions of criminal collaboration, I illustrate the strong analogies that exist between forms of criminal collaboration and the theory of social organization.I argue in this dissertation that criminal organizing is not intrinsically different from social organizing. In fact, the dissertation illustrates the existence of strong analogies between patterns of criminal organizing and the elements of social organizations. But depending on time and context, some actions and forms of organizing are defined as criminal, and are then, intentionally or unintentionally, presumed to be intrinsically different from social organizing. Since the basis of my argument is that criminal organizing is not intrinsically different from social organizing, I advocate that the study of organized crime needs to return to the basic principles of social organization in order to understand the emergence of, and the underlying mechanism that gives rise to, the forms of criminal collaboration that we seek to explain. To this end, a new general analytical framework, “criminal organizing”, that brings the different forms of criminal organizations and their dimensions together under a single analytical tool, is proposed as an example of how organizational sociology can advance organized crime research and clarify the chaotic concept of organized crime. Details: Stockholm, SWE: Stockholm University, 2016. 103p. Source: Internet Resource: STOCKHOLM STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY, CRIMINAL ORGANIZING, NEW SERIES 62: Accessed March 24, 2017 at: https://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:921818/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Sweden URL: https://su.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:921818/FULLTEXT01.pdf Shelf Number: 144573 Keywords: Criminal GangsCriminal NetworksMafiaOrganized Crime |
Author: Center for the Study of Democracy Title: Countering Extortion Racketeering: The Italian Experience Summary: The Italian approach to countering extortion racketeering is based on a synergy between policies against the larger issue of organised and mafia-type crime and specialised measures that tackle this specific problem. The key elements of this approach include: → A Special Commissioner who is responsible for nation-wide coordination of anti-extortion and anti-racket activities and initiatives. → A Solidarity Fund operates for the benefit of victims of organised crime, extortion, and usury. → Protective policies and measures such as those for the protection of collaborators and witnesses of justice. → A legal framework which enables civil society organisations to take part in the fight against organised crime and mafia-type activities, particularly as regards victim support. → Social reuse of confiscated assets is especially important because of its symbolic and economic significance. Details: Sophia: Center for the Study of Democracy, 2017. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 18, 2017 at: http://www.csd.bg/artShow.php?id=17762 Year: 2017 Country: Italy URL: http://www.csd.bg/artShow.php?id=17762 Shelf Number: 147373 Keywords: Extortion MafiaOrganized Crime Racketeering |
Author: Garzon, Juan Carlos Title: Mafia & Co.,: The Criminal Networks in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia Summary: Mafia & Co. provides an analytical perspective of the inner workings and expansion of organized crime in three Latin American countries. Juan Carlos Garzon, a Colombian political scientist, provides a comparative investigation looking specifically at criminal networks in Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil. Details: Washington, DC, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Latin American Program, 2008. 190p. Source: Internet Resource: accessed January 22, 2018 at: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/mafiaandcompany_reducedsize.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Latin America URL: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/mafiaandcompany_reducedsize.pdf Shelf Number: 121335 Keywords: Criminal NetworksMafiaOrganized Crime |
Author: Thomas, Kim Title: The Rule of the Gun: Hits and assassinations in South Africa, 2000-2017 Summary: This report presents an analysis of data on hits (contract killings) carried out in South Africa. The data has been compiled as part of the work of a collaborative project, Assassination Witness. The data that informs the report spans the period from 2000 to 2017 and the findings allow certain conclusions to be drawn about the evolving nature of the phenomenon of paid-for assassinations. The targeted killing of people - a form of organized crime that escalated rapidly towards the end of the data period - has a highly detrimental impact on South Africa's ongoing democratic project and often fragile governance systems. The study found that a large proportion of assassinations in South Africa are contracted for political, economic or social gain, and that commissioned killings also targeted professionals in the country's criminal-justice system. There are segments of the economy that nurture and feed this criminal market, notably South Africa's notoriously violent taxi industry, which provides a recruitment pool where hitmen can be hired. The findings of this report aim to inform a more effective policy response to the phenomenon of contract killings in South Africa in order that more can be done about it. Posted on: 14 March 2018 Share this article FacebookTwitterGoogle GmailOutlook.comPinterestLinkedInSkypeEvernoteWhatsAppEmailShare SummaryThis report presents an analysis of data on hits (contract killings) carried out in South Africa. The data has been compiled as part of the work of a collaborative project, Assassination Witness. The data that informs the report spans the period from 2000 to 2017 and the findings allow certain conclusions to be drawn about the evolving nature of the phenomenon of paid-for assassinations. The targeted killing of people - a form of organized crime that escalated rapidly towards the end of the data period - has a highly detrimental impact on South Africa's ongoing democratic project and often fragile governance systems. The study found that a large proportion of assassinations in South Africa are contracted for political, economic or social gain, and that commissioned killings also targeted professionals in the country's criminal-justice system. There are segments of the economy that nurture and feed this criminal market, notably South Africa's notoriously violent taxi industry, which provides a recruitment pool where hitmen can be hired. The findings of this report aim to inform a more effective policy response to the phenomenon of contract killings in South Africa in order that more can be done about it.Various international studies provided the terminology, framework and background to understanding how and why contract killings become prevalent. But these analyses are largely focused on developed countries. It is important to note that the South African context, as is the case with other developing countries, is different from that of the Global North. In South Africa, the sheer number of hits is greater, the urgency of collecting the data more apparent and the need to act more pressing. Various international studies provided the terminology, framework and background to understanding how and why contract killings become prevalent. But these analyses are largely focused on developed countries. It is important to note that the South African context, as is the case with other developing countries, is different from that of the Global North. In South Africa, the sheer number of hits is greater, the urgency of collecting the data more apparent and the need to act more pressing. Key recommendations - Improve firearm control to reduce the flow of illicit arms.Focus on reducing violent competition within the taxi industry.Erode the 'nurseries of violence' that provide a supply of hitmen for hire. Bolster prosecution-led investigations.Expand efforts at monitoring assassinations and disaggregate homicide data, so that better-quality statistics on contract killings are made available. Details: Cape Town: University of Cape Town, 2018. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 30, 2018 at: http://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/The-rule-of-the-gun_Assassination-Witness_-1.pdf Year: 2018 Country: South Africa URL: http://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/The-rule-of-the-gun_Assassination-Witness_-1.pdf Shelf Number: 149960 Keywords: AssassinationsContract KillingsGun ControlHomicidesMafiaViolent Crime |
Author: Slade, Gavin Title: Mafia and Anti-Mafia in the Republic of Georgia: Criminal Resilience and Adaptation Since the Collapse of Communism Summary: 'Thieves-in-law' (vory-v-zakone in Russian or kanonieri qurdebi in Georgian) are career criminals belonging to a criminal fraternity that has existed at least since the 1930s in the Soviet Gulag. These actors still exist in one form or another in post-Soviet countries and have integrated into transnational organised criminal networks. For reasons yet to be explicated, thieves-in-law became exceptionally prevalent in the Soviet republic of Georgia. Here, by the 1990s, they formed a mafia network where this means criminal associations that attempt to monopolize protection in legal and illegal sectors of the economy. In 2005, Mikhail Saakashvili, the current president of Georgia claimed that 'in the past 15 years...Georgia was not ruled by [former President] Shevardnadze, but by thieves-in-law.' Directly transferring anti-organised crime policy from Italy and America, Saakashvili's government made reform of the criminal justice system generally and an attack on the thieves-in-law specifically a cornerstone of the Rose Revolution. New legislation criminalises the possession of the status of 'thief-in-law' and of membership of criminal associations that constitute what is known as the 'thieves world' (qurduli samkaro). Along with a sweeping reform of the police and prisons and a 'culture of lawfulness' campaign, Georgian criminal justice reforms since 2003 may be seen as the first sustained anti-mafia policy to be implemented in a post-Soviet country. It also appears to have been very successful. The longevity and sudden decline of the thieves-in-law in Georgia provides the main questions that the following study addresses: How do we account for changes in the levels of resilience to state attack of actors carrying the elite criminal status of 'thief-in-law'? How has this resilience been so effectively compromised since 2005? Utilising unique access to primary sources of data such as police files, court cases, archives and expert interviews this thesis studies the dynamics of changing mafia activities, recruitment practices, and structural forms of a criminal group as it relates to changes in the environment and, in particular, the recent anti-organised crime policy. Details: Oxford, UK: St. Antony's College, Oxford University, 2011. 339p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed October 23, 2018 at: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/catalog/uuid:1a0fdb4a-a671-4675-840d-dea296bc5272/download_file?file_format=pdf&safe_filename=THESIS01&type_of_work=Thesis Year: 2011 Country: Georgia URL: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/catalog/uuid:1a0fdb4a-a671-4675-840d-dea296bc5272/download_file?file_format=pdf&safe_filename=THESIS01&type_of_work=Thesis Shelf Number: 153065 Keywords: Career CriminalsCriminal NetworksMafiaOrganized Crime |
Author: Scognamiglio, Annalisa Title: When the Mafia Comes to Town Summary: This paper investigates the effect of diffusion of organized crime on local economies by examining a legal institution that operated in Italy between 1956 and 1988. The law allowed Public Authorities to force mafiosos to resettle to another town. Using variation in the number of resettled mafia members across destination provinces in a differences-in-differences setting, I find no conclusive evidence on the effect of the policy on crime or homicides, while there is a very robust positive impact on employment in the construction sector. Results are consistent with mafia exploiting these new locations mainly for money laundering. Details: Naples, Italy: Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance, 2015. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 23, 2019 at: https://ideas.repec.org/p/sef/csefwp/404.html Year: 2015 Country: Italy URL: https://ideas.repec.org/p/sef/csefwp/404.html Shelf Number: 156028 Keywords: HomicidesItalyMafia MafiososMoney LaunderingOrganized Crime |
Author: Pucci, Rafael Diniz Title: Brazil on Trial: Mafia, Organized Crime, Gang, Terrorist Group - or, Simply, a Problem Created by a State Policy Summary: The present article searches an explanation for the acts - in the period from the 12th until 19th of May 2006 - that were attributed to the PCC (First Command of the Capital) in Brazil, and impacted especially on the state of Sao Paulo. Firstly, it analyses the debate concerning the mass imprisonment model that Brazil has followed in the last fifteen years. Then, it tries to summarize those facts and, further, it attempts to discuss what kind of actor the PCC is - is it a Terrorist Organization, as one Brazilian newspaper labeled it? A Mafia style organisation (as a German newspaper called it)? A Gang (as an Italian newspaper stated) or a Criminal Organization (French, Spanish and Argentinean newspapers)? Details: Freiburg i. Br.: edition iuscrim, 2006. 24p. Source: (Vol. 36) forschung aktuell | research in brief. Freiburg i. Br.: edition iuscrim. Accessed June 14, 2019 at: https://www.mpicc.de/en/publications/brazil-on-trial-mafia-organized-crime-gang-terrorist-group-or-simply-a-problem-created-by-a-state-policy/ Year: 2006 Country: Brazil URL: https://www.mpicc.de/en/publications/brazil-on-trial-mafia-organized-crime-gang-terrorist-group-or-simply-a-problem-created-by-a-state-policy/ Shelf Number: 156417 Keywords: MafiaOrganized Crime Terrorism |